What I’m seeing at many of my clients is an inability to know what will be completed in the next release. This shows up as missed dates and frustration over broken commitments and “unreliable teams”. When the executives inquire, they get finger pointing and non-answers, such as “the 3rd party software was late” or “software development is just inherently unpredictable”. Further, the yardstick they use to evaluate teams doesn’t help. They don’t realize, from top to bottom, that their biggest problem is a lack of predictability. Let me give you an anecdote.

I recently had the opportunity to coach a team considered the best in the company. During an earnings announcement, their CEO credited this group for driving a large percentage of the increase in revenue over the last quarter. This was a big deal. What did they do that other teams should be doing? Can they continue to deliver such results for the company? Actually, this team has no idea how much they can accomplish. Not in this coming release. Not this month. Not even this sprint. Are you seeing this in your organization?

Think Differently

They consider this the best team as measured by short-term business results, but if they aren’t predictable then revenue results aren’t enough. Although many CEOs are after short-term results, it does them no good if next quarter’s numbers aren’t close to guidance. The market hates surprises. Predictable steady growth is crucial. What this CEO really wants to know is how they are going to do next quarter.

Further, market factors and chance account for the results more than this team’s skill – any team could have produced those results given the chance to work on that product. This team actually may be the worst in the company when it comes to developing high-quality features each release. The product is the best by revenue, but the team has no influence over those results or with how they operate. Their results are a red herring.

Hidden Costs

What is the entire organization not paying attention to? Predictability.

Here is a little taste of what’s going on: The members of this team change often. They borrow people from other teams, which contributes to their over-commitment each sprint and hurts the others. People are on multiple teams and commit to none of them. A couple days after planning, a programmer says he won’t help with their stories because he is helping another team instead. The Product Owner applies pressures to proceed without the required usability involvement, causing rework. They agree to start work on stories that are not ready for development. Attention from the directors through executives greatly increases the pressure, encouraging them to take on too much work each sprint. They regularly reschedule and ultimately cancel their retrospectives. And I could go on.

Their environment is keeping them from being predictable and productive. Sound familiar?

The Fix

Of course, it’s easy to say “don’t do that”, but much harder to implement changes. It requires a program of intentional improvement at the team, program and portfolio levels, supplemented with needs-based training, demonstrating results via agile health metrics and progress via assessment scores.

Since most organizations don’t know how to get predictable, many seek help from an enterprise-level agile coach. Since getting predictable in an enterprise is not a quick process, you need an agile coach who understands how to help when the organization isn’t agile yet. The type of coach you need will help the teams be as predictable as possible given their constraints; One who can help produce factual information about the velocity and quality that teams are able to achieve; One who can credibly express the impact of organizational behaviors that are reducing the company’s potential. You need a coach who will be a guide, interpreting assessments and metrics, relating training to day-to-day events, and cementing lessons learned in training sessions and workshops.

Our Approach

That is what my colleagues and I have been doing lately. We’ve helped companies get predictable. We focus on the end goal, but are pragmatic in our approach. Training is not enough. Sustainable change requires a holistic approach. Specifically, one must address the structure of the organization, their practices, and ultimately their culture. It takes a sustained effort to make a real difference. Engage with a company, meet them where they are, and help get them where they need to be.

Why Choose Us?

We're different

We are unique characters with our own personality and charisma. We're authentic and not afraid to be ourselves. We keep our individuality and are different to other consultants. We help our clients to be different too.

We cut the crap

No blah blah blah, we're straight-talking but we’re on your side, so always speak with respect and humility. We are honest and act with integrity. We keep things clear and simple, so we can move fast and get stuff done.​

We're experts

We are passionate about our work and ​experts in what we do. We have fun because we love what we do. But we are serious about quality and delivery. ​You won't find better people anywhere.



What People Say

“Kelly revolutionised the way our digital department operated. A true advocate of agile principles, he quickly improved internal communication within our teams and our internal clients by aligning our business and creating a much enhanced sense of transparency in the decisions the business was making. Kelly also introduced a higher sense of empowerment to the development teams...”

PETER SILVA-JANKOWSKIIPC MEDIA

“Kelly’s a leading program director with the ability to take charge from day one and keep strong momentum at both a program and project level driving prioritisation, resourcing and budgeting agendas. Kelly operates with an easy-going style and possesses a strong facilitation skill set. From my 5 months experience working with Kelly, I would recommend Kelly to program manage large scale, complex, cross company change programs both from a business and IT perspective.”

LUKE SHARKEY /STRATEGY & IMPLEMENTATION LEADERSUNCORP

“Kelly is an extremely talented and visionary leader. As such he manages to inspire all around him to achieve their best. He is passionate about agile and has a wealth of experience to bring to bear in this area. If you're 'lucky' he might even tell you all about his agile blog. Above all this, Kelly is great fun to work with. He is always relaxed and never gets stressed - and trust me, he had plenty of opportunity here! If you get the chance to work with Kelly, don't pass it up.”

GILES BENTLEY, DEVELOPMENT & OPERATIONS DIRECTORTIME INC

“Kelly is an Agile heavy-weight. He came in to assess my multi-million $ Agile development program which wasn’t delivering the right throughput. He interviewed most of the team and made some key recommendations that, when implemented, showed immediate results. I couldn’t ask for more than that except he’s a really nice guy as well.”

DAN PULHAM, DIGITAL DIRECTORTELSTRA

“Kelly and I worked together on a very large project trying to secure a new Insurer client. Kelly had fantastic commercial awareness as well as his technical expertise. Without him I would never had secured this client so I owe a lot to him. He is also a really great guy!”

GINA MILLARDGLASS'S INFORMATION SERVICES

“Kelly came to the department and has really made a huge impact on how the department communicates, collaborates and generally gets things done. We were already developing in an agile way, but Kelly has brought us even more into alignment with agile and scrum best practices, being eager to share information and willing to work with us to change our processes rather than dictate how things must be done. He is highly knowledgable about agile development (as his active blog proves) but his blog won't show what a friendly and knowledgeable guy he is. I highly recommend Kelly to anyone looking for a CTO or a seminar on agile/scrum practices - you won't be disappointed!”

ANDY JEFFRIES/TECHNICAL LEADIPC MEDIA

“Kelly was a great colleague to work with - highly competent, trustworthy and generally a nice bloke.”

HANNAH JOYCEGLASS'S INFORMATION SERVICES

“Kelly was engaged as a Program Director on a complex business and technology transformation program for Suncorp Commercial Insurance. Kelly drew on his key capabilities and depth of experience to bring together disparate parties in a harmonised way, ensuring the initiate and concept phases of the program were understood and well formulated. Excellent outcome in a very short time frame. ”

BRUCE WEIR/EGMSUNCORP

“I worked with Kelly on many projects at IPC and I was always impressed with his approach to all of them, always ensuring the most commercially viable route was taken. He is great at managing relationships and it was always a pleasure working with him.”

BEATRIZ MONTOYA/CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTORIPC MEDIA

“I worked with Kelly whilst at Thoughtworks and found him to be a most inspiring individual, his common-sense approach coupled with a deep understanding of Agile and business makes him an invaluable asset to any organisation. I can't recommend Kelly enough.”

PETER THATCHER, SENIOR ACCOUNT DIRECTORThoughtWorks

“Kelly was a brilliant CTO and a great support to me in the time we worked together. I owe Kelly a great deal in terms of direction and how to get things done under sometimes difficult circumstances. Thanks Kelly.”